Browse High Country News issues

For all the heroism of their achievement, Lewis and Clark would not have survived long without the help of the many Indian peoples they encountered in the West.

The Bush administration says governors have 18 months to ask the Forest Service to protect roadless areas in their states, but the states will have to pay for the costly and complex petition process.

A conservation movement is stirring on the Great Plains, but local farmers are stuck with a harsh reality: It still pays to plow up virgin prairie.

The Forest Service plans to rein in cross-country travel by off-road vehicles, but enforcing new rules may prove next to impossible.

Mountain pine beetles are attacking more forests and more varieties of trees — and thriving at higher elevations than ever before — and some scientists believe global climate change is at the root of the problem. Also in this issue: A recent Supreme Court ruling in a Utah wilderness lawsuit will limit the ability of citizens to sue the government over how its agencies manage natural resources.

On a 10-day walk through the northwestern New Mexico desert, the author follows an ancient road that leads him from silent Indian ruins into noisy, modern gas fields. Also in this issue: Land managers have been talking about letting more wildfires burn, but the recent blowup of the Peppin Fire near Capitan, N.M. – home of Smokey Bear – leads to renewed talk of aggressive fire suppression.

Wal-Mart wants to build more giant Supercenter stores in the West, but communities like Inglewood, Calif., are starting to take a stand against the world’s largest company. Also in this issue: Even the National Rifle Association came out in support of a Tucson, Ariz., open-space saving bond, which passed in a landslide despite complaints from critics that it was just pork.

Some activists hope that the current hard times facing both workers and the environment will resurrect the strong alliances that once existed between greens and labor unions. Also in this issue: NOAA Fisheries is drafting new regulations that will allow hatchery-raised fish to be counted along with wild salmon and steelhead, a move that property-rights lawyers hope will take the species off the endangered list.

The West’s environmentalist lawyers are manning the legal barricades, as the Bush administration stealthily attacks the nation’s bedrock environmental laws. Also in this issue: Arizona activists team up with Rep. Raul Grijalva to create a small-scale wilderness proposal for the Tumacacori Highlands.

The Bush administration is outsourcing to private contractors jobs formerly done by employees of federal agencies, among them the job of the Forest Service Content Analysis Teams (CATs) – the people who receive and report the comments of the public. The team was sacked, many say to the detriment of the public connection, and with increased cost to taxpayers. Also in this issue: Controversial energy bill, to increase domestic oil and gas drilling and force federal agencies to expedite permits for energy projects on public lands, came back yet again, but was defeated in the Senate, 50-47.

With the Interior West almost exclusively Republican territory, "Democrats for the West," a coalition of leaders, have issued a challenge to fellow Democrats to create sustainable Democratic majorities. Also in this issue: While mountain lions receive bad press for what some say is increasing aggression against humans, experts say that humans may be the real problem. Lion killing in most Western states is increasing, and biologists say no state has ever had a sound population estimate for the animals. Without sound data, politics often plays into determining hunting quotas.

As private lands become the new frontier in the West’s wild real estate frenzy, ranchers are turning to land trusts in places like Gunnison, Colo., to find out how to hold on to their land and keep it open and undeveloped. Also in this issue: California decides to set its own new "public health goal" for perchlorate contamination, but critics point out that it is both legally unenforceable and lower than the previous goal.

In Arizona, a historic water deal could give the tiny, impoverished Gila River Indian Community a path back to its farming roots – and turn it into one of the West’s next big power brokers. Also in this issue: Western ranchers rejoice when a federal court jury finds that the nation’s largest meatpacker, Tyson/IBP, has illegally squeezed $1.28 billion from independent cattle producers.

Wyoming’s Green Mountain Common Allotment is one of the West’s last big, wide-open landscapes – but these days, ranchers, environmentalists, history buffs and the BLM are arguing over whether it’s time to start putting up fences. Also in this issue: Nearly a decade after Imperial Valley irrigators fought off a water grab by Texans Ed and Lee Bass, the Imperial Valley Irrigation District buys the old Bass property, Western Farms, and the water rights that come with it.

A right-wing coup is under way in the nation’s courts, which George W. Bush is stacking with anti-environmental judges, and the impacts on Western conservation issues are not going to be pretty. Also in this issue: National Park Service wilderness coordinator Jim Walters resigns in frustration over the agency’s neglect of wilderness, after the superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks allows helicopters in wilderness areas.

Port Orford, Ore., is working hard to create a new kind of community-based, sustainable fisheries management for the over-fished ocean. Also in this issue: Environmentalists and immigration activists have a few doubts about President Bush’s proposed immigration reform policy.

The Bush administration opens up wild lands to oil and gas drilling, pulling the rug out from under two decades of citizen wilderness activism. Also in this issue: Judge Emmet Sullivan reinstates a Clinton-era ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

Mormons are often stereotyped as conservative anti-environmentalists, but Utah activists Richard Ingebretsen and Chris Peterson of the Glen Canyon Institute want to convince fellow believers that it’s OK to be green. Also in this issue: The proposed salvage logging of the Biscuit Fire area in Oregon’s Siskiyou Forest is one of the largest timber sales in history, and critics say it’s not only ecologically dangerous, but undermines the Roadless Rule.

A homegrown consensus effort called the Owyhee Initiative is trying to save both wilderness and ranching in southwestern Idaho – but in the polarized Bush era, consensus is often controversial. Also in this issue: Federal wildlife managers admit that the massive fish kill in the Klamath River in 2002 was caused, in part, by the diversion of water to farmers.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is booming, revitalized by a new era of weapons development – but the state of New Mexico wants the lab to clean up its old Cold War-era messes before it starts making new ones. Also in this issue: A 10-year-old plan to build a controversial expressway through Petroglyph National Monument hits a "stop" sign, when Albuquerque voters refuse to pay for it.

San Diego, Calif., adopted its groundbreaking Multiple Species Conservation Program to protect wildlife habitat while allowing for continued community growth – but critics say endangered wildlife is the loser in the deal. Also in this issue: Critics say it’s not a coincidence that the Bush administration announces bad environmental news – like the recent rollback of mine-tailings limits – late on Friday afternoons, when media coverage is sparse.

The West might still be the nation’s outdoor playground, but the Western companies that make outdoor recreation gear are finding greener pastures overseas. Also in this issue: A landmark California water deal has Imperial Valley irrigators finally agreeing to sell Colorado River water to San Diego, without sacrificing the Salton Sea.

The West’s big newspapers fall short when it comes to covering today’s most important issues: the "big story" about the environment, and the impacts on the region of growth and development. Also in this issue:Lea County, N.M., is courting Louisiana Energy Services, a company that wants to build a uranium-enrichment facility to create fuel for nuclear power plants.

The pesticides used in orchards and farm fields in places like eastern Washington endanger the health – and even the lives – of immigrant farm workers. Also in this issue: While Congress debates whether Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt should take over the Environmental Protection Agency, the agency itself plows ahead in an anti-environmental direction.

Radio shock jock John Stokes wants to scare environmentalists away from Montana’s Flathead County, but his bullying tactics have led instead to increased unity among his opponents and quiet conservation progress. Also in this issue:The Earth Liberation Front takes credit for vandalizing Hummers and SUVs at Southern California car dealerships, and an SUV-owners’ group says environmentalists are to blame.

The hardscrabble desert town of Carlsbad, N.M. – already home to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant – is brushing aside the fears of environmentalists and arms-control advocates in its eagerness to host the Bush administration’s planned new nuclear bomb factory. Also in this issue:Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, R, is President Bush’s pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency, and some environmentalists fear he will prove little more than a yes-man.

In Wyoming’s Upper Green River Basin, a natural gas boom is threatening pronghorn antelope and other wildlife, and some Pinedale-area residents are beginning to fight back. Also in this issue: The West is likely to be the loser under the new energy bill just passed by Congress.